BSE Affiliated Professor Ursula Mello (IAE-CSIC and BSE) has been awarded a grant by AXA Research Fund for her project, "Public Policies for Tackling Inequality."
Hers is one of just eight projects worldwide to receive funding in the framework of AXA's call for proposals under the topic, "Towards Inclusive and Environmentally Sustainable Growth."
Professor Mello explains that she will study how governmental policy could reduce inequality in access to higher education. "Using the case study of Brazil, one of the most unequal countries in the world, and where the government recently adopted a set of policies to democratize access to universities, the project will analyze two specific types of interventions: the practice of affirmative action and the introduction of centralized admission systems. Parting from the previous literature, which focuses on how such policies affect students’ outcomes during university, I plan to study how they impact individuals’ incentives for human capital accumulation before college, aspirations and choices for major and institutions, which later can affect labor market outcomes."
